I didn’t know Kelly well, only met him a few times but he was a class act. Just a sweet, nice, funny as hell, hard working guy. I used to love him on the Tonight Show when I was a kid in High School. I remember he went to England and hit it big with his own show over there. He also had a Variety show here on CBS for awhile.  He was one of the good guys. From St. Louis, he became a talk show staple in the early 70’s. He was on every show and he always delivered.

He was also one of the original players at The Comedy Store, and was the first American ever to have his own show on the BBC. ‘The Kelly Monteith Show’ ran six seasons over there. It was much a ‘Larry Sanders/ Jack Benny’ kind of show. It was smartly written. He once told me that he was ‘the perfect guy to play Kelly Monteith.’